Over the weekend I had a mate ask what 'underground disco' was (i.e. is there more to the genre than Saturday Night Fever) and whether house music came from disco. I also missed disco don Greg Wilson play for a second time, but we won't go any further into that as my psych told me to bury the pain deep, deep down, so the time is right for a disco post.
Love Committee - Just as long as I've got you
To be entirely truthful though, this post is mainly an excuse to show off one of my favourite compilation covers of all time. Ten years on and I'm still in lust.
The Love Committee track is off a 1999 box set put together by Dimitri from Paris, whom I had only known previously from slightly cheesy disco house mixes like his Playboy Mansion effort. This was probably my first introduction to 'underground disco', but not necessarily my first introduction to semi-naked French women.
Love Committee's song has long been a staple of many disco sets, and it was also sampled by a house track in the late 90's/early 2000's, the name of which I can't put my finger on. All remember was the video clip of a bobblehead dog in the back window of a car being driven around and nodding at bobblehead bitches (in the canine sense of the word). Anyways, I digress. The original is obviously far superior.
download: Just as long as I've got you
Womack & Womack - Baby I'm scared of you (Frankie Knuckles Edit)
"This portion of our Saturday Night Live Ain't No Jive, Chicago's number one dance party, is being brought to you by the Third Annual Summer Hot Mix Dance Fest, tonight at the Rainbow."
Frankie is affectionately known as the Godfather of House, and this is taken directly from a cassette recording of a young(er) Frankie Knuckles playing on Chicago radio in 1986. The sound quality leaves a bit to be desired, but it's by far the best version around.
The Womacks' original recording is sped up, chopped and screwed by Frankie, drawing it out to a full eight minutes. The interplay between the couple after the breakdown is fantastic; not to mention the 1986 club night ads.
Actually, a certain friend of mine still owes me a drink for picking the name of this tune purely from her generic description of this mix as "a 1980s Frankie Knuckles radio show". Way to be stingy with the details Aneta.
download: Womack & Womack - Baby I'm scared of you (Frankie Knuckles edit)
(via Dalston Shopper)
Debby Blackwell - Once you got me going
Track one off a recent disco compilation - The Blank Generation: Blank Tapes NYC 1971-1985. It's on Strut, who always have quality output (check out Disco Not Disco if you get the chance). The vocal riff has been playing in my head for over a week.
download: Debby Blackwell - Once you got me going
Gwen Guthrie - Seventh Heaven
It would be remiss of me to write a disco post and not include some Larry Levan. Disclaimer: I am a complete and utter Larry fanboy.
Larry is widely regarded as the first legendary DJ, and was "the Jimi Hendrix of the decks" back in the 1970's and early 80's. His club the Paradise Garage was a New York disco hotspot with the best sound system in the world bar none, and seeing Larry DJ there will probably always be my number one time travel choice, gay door policy and all.
Gwen Guthrie's 1982 Padlock EP is something of a disco allstar affair. With Gwen on vocals, Sly and Robbie on production duties and Larry mixing it was always going to be a winner. To put it in the words of Morgan Geist (Metro Area), "it's 34 minutes long and it's pure butter. Spare, soulful, synthy and dubby. It's pretty much perfect, until you get sick of it from listening to it for six days straight." (Muzik Mag)
download: Gwen Guthrie - Seventh Heaven (Remix - Larry Levan)
The Seventh Heaven bassline was used to great effect in this Shola Ama remix too
bonus: Shola Ama - You're the one I want (Di Paradise Mix)
No comments:
Post a Comment